Coin release



June 8, 1943. B. c. GRUNIG COIN RELEASE Filed Jan. 23, 1941 INVENTO 27 17/5 ATTO Patented June 8, 1943 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFlCE COIN RELEASE Bernhard C. Grunig, Chicago, Ill., assignor to A. B. T. Manufacturing Corp., Chicago, 111., a corporation of Illinois Application January 23, 1941, Serial No. 375,598

' formed therein in the region of the groove I6.

3 Claims.

This invention relates to coin control mechanism and has for its principal object the provision of a cam plate for use with coin release mechanism which employ a coin carrier to move a coin release latch.

Another object of the invention is to provide a special cam plate adapted to be associated with a coin coupling so as to immediately release a coin the moment it has performed its unlatching operation on the coin control mechanism.

A further object of this invention is to provide a simple structure which will be economical in manufacture and highly efiicient in use.

Other objects and advantages and novel aspects of the invention reside in certain details of construction together with a relationship of the component parts as will appear more fully in the description.

The invention will be best'understood by"ref--v ence to the accompanying drawing in which:

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary elevational View of a coin control;

Fig. 2 is avertical sectional detail taken along line 22 in Fig. 1; I

Fig. 3 is a horizontal sectional detail taken along line 3-3 inFig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary perspective view of the coin control with certain parts removed from their assembled position; and

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary elevational view of a modifiedform of my present invention.

This application is directed to an improvement in coincontrol mechanisms such as the one disclosed in my co-pending application, Serial No. 348,133; filed July 24, 1940, on a Coin return.

Referring to the drawing, l0 indicates a mounting plate which forms the front wall of a cabinet in which the coin control is employed. This plate Ill is provided with a boss member I I which supports a rotatable shaft I2. A disc I3 is fastened to the shaft I2 by being sweat on, or by any other suitable fastening, so that the disc I3 will rotate with the shaft. A portion 12 of the shaft I2 extends beyond the face of the plate l0 and has a handle I4 fixed thereto by mean of a pin I5.

The disc I3 will be termed a coin carrier and to this end it has a slot or groove l6 formed between its side walls and extending from the periphery of the disc toward its center. As seen in Fig. 1, the groove I6 is adapted to receive coins C from a gravity chute H. The lower marginal edge [8 of the groove provides an inclined path which directs the coins to the right, Fig. l.

The periphery of the disc [3 has a notch I9 A latch arm 20 pivotally mounted'on the plate II] as at 2| has a laterally extending pin 22 at its free'end which is normally disposed in the notch formation I9 in the disc. The pin 22 is normally urged into the notch I9 by spring means 23 which is hooked to the arm 20 and anchored on the plate II] to urge the arm in a clockwi e direction, Fig. 1.

In the present illustration it will be noted that in Figs. 1 and 4 the shaft I2 and disc I3 are normally latched against rot'ative movement when no coin is disposed in the groove I6 by reason of the latching engagement" of the pin 22 against the left-hand end of the notch I9. However, it will be noted in Fig. 1 that two coins are required to release the disc I3 for rotative movement and that the leading coin will raise the pin 22 out of the notch I9 when the disc is rotated clockwise and that after'the leading coin passesfrom beneath the latch 22 it will befr'ee to gravitate into a suitable receptaclepnot shown.j The second coin howevenwill be free for movement into the coin receptacle as was the first coin'by means now to be described.

To this end there is'provided a latchp1ate25 in the form of an irregularly shaped disc having a central opening 24 formed therein so that the plate 25 may be arranged on the shaft I2. The L latch plate 25 has apertures26 formed therein.

radially with respect to the central mounting'on the shaft [2 and these apertures are alignediwith studs 21 extending from the rear face of the disc I3. As seen in Fig; 4 the latch plate 25 is mounted upon the disc l3 with the. studs 2! keying the latch plate to the disc [3 for rotative movement therewith. A supporting bracket 28 having an The latch plate 25 is provided with a notch formation 33 which is aligned with the left-hand edge of the notch I9 formed in the disc I3. The peripheral edge of the latch plate 25 adjacent the notch 33 provides a cam formation 34 which is disposed a distance from the aXis of the shaft 12 greater than the extreme radius of the disc i3 extending from the axis aforesaid, to the outer edge of the leading coin C. When two coins are deposited in the groove I6 and the disc I3 is rotated clockwise the leading coin will raise the latch 22 out of the notch I9and as the leading coin is rotated beneath the latch pin 22 the cam portion 34 on the latch plate 25 will likewise be moved beneath the pin 22 to disengage the latter from the leading coin thereby freeing the same for gravitational movement into the receptacle as aforesaid. By reason of the engagement of the pin 22 with the cam 34 the second coin will likewise be free to gravitate to and beyond the carrier member l3 into the receptacle, not shown.

The disc [3 may be provided with a full stroke mechanism consisting of notches 35 formed in the periphery of the disc I 3 which are engageable with a dog member 36 pivotally supported on one of the stud members 3|. It will be noted that there is an idle movement of the control shaft I2 and the disc l3'and that as soon as the disc I3 is rotated beyond the limit of the idle stroke, the latch dog 36 will begin to engage the first notch 35'.

In the modified form shown in Fig. 5, like parts are designated by like reference numerals, the purpose of the disclosure being primarily to villustrate a modified form of latch plate 25' which is adapted to be used on coin carriers in which only one coin is required to release the control mechanism.

The outstanding characteristic of this attaching plate is that it may be simply and economically arranged on previously constructed coin carriers and to provide an. instantaneous release of coins the moment the coin carrier has been released from latching action by the latch pin 22. In the use of coin control mechanism of the present disclosure the inner end of the shaft I2 is operatively connected to some controlled mechanism and it is essential, in the prevention of fraud, that the original coins deposited be collected at the earliest possible moment. In cases Where this is not done it has been discovered that a partial rotativev movement of the shaft l2 by skillfulmanipulation of the handle l4 sometimes results in a successful operation of the machine without a collection of the coins deposited.

It is therefore seen that I have provided a new and juseful attachment means for coin control mechanisms which may be. easily arranged thereon and which will: function to promptly collect the coins required to release the mechanism for operation the instant the releasing operation has been accomplished by the coins.

While I have illustrated and described the preferred form 'of construction for carrying my invention into effect, this is capable of variation and modification without departing from the spirit of the invention. I, therefore, do not wish to be limited to the precise details of construction set forth, but desire to avail myself of such variations and modifications as come within the scope of the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, what I' claim as new and desire to protect by Letters Patent is:

1. A latch plate adapted to be operatively associated with a coin carrier and arranged for latching engagement with a latch member to normally restrain the coin carrier against effective movement, said latch member disposed to block normal gravitational movement of coins through said carrier and being moved into nonlatching position by a coin disposed in said carrier, means keying said latch plate to said coin carrier for rotative movement therewith, latch engaging means on said plate adapted to be engaged by the latch member aforesaid when no coin is disposed in the coin carrier, and cam means on said latch plate adjacent said latchengaging means arranged to hold said latch member out of engagement with a coin disposed in said carrier the moment the latch member is moved into non-latching position as aforesaid to free said coin for gravitational movement from said carrier.

2. A latch plate adapted to be operatively associated with a coin carrier and arranged forlatching engagement with a latch member to normally restrain the coincarrier against effective movement and to retain coins in said carrier aforesaid, means connecting said latch plate to said coin carrier for rotative movement therewith, latch engaging means on said plate adapted to be engaged by the latch member aforesaid when no coins are disposed in the coin carrier, and cam means on said latch plate adjacent said latch engaging means and arranged to hold said latch member out of engagement with the leading coin the moment the latch member is moved into non-latching position as aforesaid to permit all the coins in said carrier to gravitate beyond said latch member.

3. In a device of the class described including a rotatable coin carrier having a descending coin passage and means for manually turning the coin carrier, a cam plate adapted to be concentrically arranged on said carrier, means for coupling said cam plate to said carrier for movement therewith, an abutment formed in said cam plate, latch means normally blocking movement of coins along said descending coin passage, means for urging the latch means into engagement with said carrier, said latching means adapted to engage said abutment to restrain the carrier from rotative movement beyond a predetermined point when no coin is disposed in said descending coin passage, said latch means adapted to be moved out of restraining position by movement of said carrier when a coin is disposed therein, and cam means on. said cam plate adapted to be moved into engagement with said latch means when the latter is moved out of restraining position as aforesaid to free the coin in the carrier for gravitation therefrom.-

BERNHARD C. GRUNIG. 

